Tag: government
Sleek pay, oblique performance: Angus Taylor’s first government agency, the IPFA
When Angus Taylor was first promoted to the ministry as Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation in February 2016, he drew on his wealth of knowledge of consultancies to set up the little-known IPFA, the Infrastructure and Project Financing...
Fencegate: lawyer arrested, charged with crimes against humanity for sending too many emails to local council
Have you ever had a fence? Have you ever had a neighbour? When was the last time you were arrested and plonked in a police cell for annoying your local council? If you have tears, prepare to shed them now....
Tailwinds: government denials heighten intrigue over Virgin’s veiled partners
There are Chinese interests behind aviation projects in Tasmania, Western Australia and southern NSW but the intrigue surrounding Virgin’s mega-pilot-school proposal for Tamworth makes it a special case. Anthony Klan reports on the latest twist in the Tamworth saga, the...
Mayday: two shadowy Chinese corporations behind Virgin’s plan to control Australian airbase
This is the story the Murdoch press buried. Investigative reporter, Anthony Klan, defected from The Australian newspaper after News Corp bosses muzzled his investigations, including this expose into secret Chinese plans to establish a mega-pilot training facility on an Australian...
Private Health Insurance: time to dump it, says Menadue
Indefensible for public health, indefensible for taxpayers and their $12 billion subsidy. Private Health Insurance is a “wreck”, writes John Menadue. Put the funds into Medicare. STEPHEN DUCKETT of the Grattan Institute has highlighted the growing and serious plight of...
McKinsey & Co: Libs trounce Labor in consultant spending blow-outs
Analysis of McKinsey & Co contracts administered by Labor and LNP governments over the last 12 years shows cost blow-outs in eight out of 23 Coalition contracts compared with Labor’s two. The Coalition’s superior economic management narrative is taking quite...
Extinction Crisis: Director of National Parks slammed by audit amid decade funding squeeze
IN APRIL 2017, the Commonwealth Director of National Parks (DNP) translocated eight endangered Norfolk Island green parrots from Norfolk Island to what was hoped would be their new home on Phillip Island. Once endemic to Norfolk Island, by the 1970s...
Growth in jobs deteriorates since penalty rate cuts
Jobs growth in the retail and hospitality sectors has more than halved since the cuts to Sunday penalty rates, a new study has revealed. Mike Bruce reports. Research by the Centre for Future Work (CFW) confirms that, despite being premised...
Government and Debt: do as we say, not as we do
The Government campaigned on a platform of surplus. “Superior economic management,” they claimed. Now, with the economy tanking, they are asking people to spend. Will people do what they are saying, or what they are doing? The banks have already...
Radical Republican tax cuts are bankrupting America
With Trump in the Oval Office, the US government spends like the world will end tomorrow. Is there a lesson here for the Morrison Government? DCReport Editor-in-Chief, David Cay Johnston, reports on how Republican tax cuts are bankrupting America. HOW...
Paul Barratt: Australia should not participate in conflict with Iran
Australia should not participate in any military action against Iran. The current tensions have been created by the Trump Administration, and the ANZUS Alliance creates no obligation for us to assist. The President of Australians for War Powers Reform and former...
Pay Day: Christopher Pyne’s Defence bonanza a fee fillip for EY
It dwarfs all other government spending. It is secretive. A huge chunk of it does not even go out to tender. The lion’s share goes to foreign multinationals who pay no tax in Australia. It is defence spending. Michael West...
Michael Keating: Lies, Damned Lies and [personal tax] Statistics
Economic policy adviser and former head of Prime Minister & Cabinet, Dr Michael Keating, refutes the claim about middle and high-income earners facing some of world’s highest tax rates if the Morrison Government’s $158 billion tax plan is not passed...
How did the ‘clever country’ end up with a $90 billion botched NBN?
The Coalition’s botched NBN is not just a costly technological failure, but a policy debacle that has cost Australia’s taxpayers billions of dollars, as well as contributing to the severe devaluation of a whole industry. Kim Wingerei reports. ON WEDNESDAY,...
How to win on wages: lessons from Australia and abroad
This month’s national accounts show, relative to earnings, wages slumping to lowest on record. Compared to the rest of the developed world, Australia is now in record low territory when it comes to sharing the nation’s largesse with its workers....
Rowers’ Reprise: how Angus Taylor’s mates cleaned up without him
“Nothing to see here,” said Scomo, following misconduct allegations over Angus Taylor allegedly trying to influence Josh Frydenberg to weaken laws to escape prosecution by a company he part owns. Jommy Tee and Ronni Salt make another deep dive into...
Shine Energy: behind the push for a new coal-fired power station
“This ticks so many boxes,” an adamant George Christensen told Seven News. “Local jobs, indigenous self-empowerment, indigenous training, local jobs”. For an elated Herald Sun commentator, Andrew Bolt, it ticked the most important box of all, irritating “the greenies”. “I...
Australia’s Most Wanted: Rex Patrick and the Senate’s new power-block
Six people exercise extraordinary power in the current parliament. They are the Senate cross-benchers, senators whose votes are wanted, and courted, by both the Coalition government and the Opposition – to either pass laws or block them. Michael West looks...
Technologies of control and our right of refusal | Seeta Peña Gangadharan | TEDxLondon
Most of us don’t realise how much digital systems govern access to our basic public services, like education, health and housing. Even more terrifying is how much data is collected about us and used without our knowledge. In 2011, while...
Propaganda Prescription: how Australia can get its economic mojo back
The Liberal Party, its ideological ally the IPA and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp have done a remarkable job of pushing the false narrative of superior Liberal economic management. The Labor Party has invited submissions to its 2019 campaign review. Alan...